Every now and then a WWE Monday Night Raw script will leak and get shared around the Internet, revealing how production of a three-hour live sports-entertainment television show broadcast happens and exposing another tiny square of an already over-exposed business. Usually they’re very interesting. Sometimes a script leaks for an episode like Monday’s episode. Woof.

You can thank a kind Imgur user for these pages. If you don’t want to read the entire thing, highlights include:

And:

And maybe:

I’ve also created an abridged version, in case you don’t have time to browse 30 pages:

The computer wouldn’t, but you’d think someone would read over each segment real quick to make sure you don’t have stupid things like that. I get that they’re not actively putting the scripts out there for the masses to read, but come on. At least try.

While Raw this week was not good, (I’m a nice guy, my elder brother Sub Zero who got murdered by Scorpion on the other hand is NOT! So I like to criticize things the nice way unless I’m in character/heel mode like I was throughout much of the Raw/Summerslam Discussion last month) I always love looking at some Raw scripts so I can laugh my head off at them like I did 5 months ago because that’s what I do!

RAW is getting more worse by the week. It is becoming a highlight show of itself. We don’t need to constantly be reminded of what has happened within the last hour, last week, and the week before that. Same matches between the same wrestlers, along with acting that is so horrible it is painful to watch. If the WWE doesn’t have enough matches and substantial material to fill 3 hrs., they need to go back to just 2.

Allegedly it’s at the network’s insistence they go for 3 hours. Honestly the show should just be one hour. If they condensed Raw and Smackdown to a total of two hours a week, Raw would be way better and there might be a reason to watch Smackdown.

Real question: Why is this so scripted? Why are you bothering to train wrestlers down at the Performance Center to cut promos and develop characters if you’re just going to force them into poorly-written promos that come from the voice of a hack writer and not the performer themselves?

Pro wrestling is not like normal dramatic television, and it shouldn’t be scripted as such. And all you have to do to realize this is…you know, watch any era of pro wrestling. Or even have a mild respect for it. The people in charge clearly don’t, and they’re losing loyal fans and attracting absolutely no one else. You are WRESTLING. People aren’t fooled. The people who hate it for being “fake” have already given up and will never watch your program.

You do realize that the performers don’t say what’s on the script, right? It’s a guideline, running down the points that need to be covered–this is show that has plots, albeit weird ones–and the script offers an example of what the basic speech is going to sound like. The performers are still allowed to put their personal touches on it if they like.